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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Why The Silence on Jobs and Economic Growth?

It has been five years since the end of the recession.  In all that time, America has seen anemic economic growth rates.  There are fewer people working today than there were before the recession even though there are millions more people in the country.  The income of the average household is down by almost 10% during that time.  People are hurting.  The government report on growth during the last quarter shows a rate of 0.1%, and the current expectation is that when the final number is in, we will actually see a contraction during that quarter rather than growth.  So all of this gloomy economic news leads to one question that must be answered above all:  What is the proposal from president Obama regarding getting the economy growing again?

The answer to this question is an unhappy one.  Obama does not have a plan for economic growth.  Obama does not actually talk much about economic growth.  When forced by circumstances to address the future of the American economy, Obama talks about education needs like universal pre-K, something that even if put in place immediately would have no possible effect on the economy for at least twenty years.  Obama also talks about inequality of income, but he never ties this to growth, only to fairness.  Indeed, Obama's solutions to supposed inequality are to increase taxation on the wealthy, a move that will actually hurt economic growth.  Obama's "solutions" would have everyone poor.  And that is pretty much it; Obama has no other points about which he even talks when it comes to the economy.

It is a true disaster that America does not have a leader who cares about growing the economy.  I understand that Obama knows virtually nothing about economics, but there are plenty of folks who have that knowledge, something that they could explain quite quickly to the president.  The sad truth, however, is that Obama really does not care to devote any time or effort to the economy.

Let's all remember one important fact:  with better policies from Washington, our economy could have been growing at least 2% faster each year.  That means that at the end of Obama's current term those policies would have resulted in an economy that 17% larger than the current policies will produce.  That is roughly three trillion dollars worth of economic activity more than will be the case under Obama.  Put another way, that is about $10,000 more income per person in the USA each year on average had Obama just cared about the economy and adopted moderately pro-growth policies. 



 

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